Seeing as we got our hands on some Lisa lenses from Ledil for the Cree XP series LEDs, if you know how we roll you you’d know it was only a matter of time before we shoehorned the Lisa lenses where they were missing. First LED light to get the special treatment from Lisa is the Aquaray from Tropical Marine Centre. The TMC Aquaray was one of the first aquarium lights to offer XPG LEDs in a striplight form factor. At the time, secondary lenses were not available for the diminutive LED package of Cree’s XP series LEDs so adding lenses to the striplight was not an option for the Aquaray LED strips. After much fidgeting with the tabs of the Aquaray, we’ve managed to squeeze in Lisa and four of her friends into a date with the Aquaray’s XPG LEDs. The fit was not perfect though and we did end up using some clear tape to make it all sit good and tight. Follow the break to see how Lisa and Cree XP got along.
The seizure inducing GIF above shows the dramatic difference between LEDs who are partying with a Lisa lenses, and those who are riding bareback. The yardstick in the image gives a sense of scale and for those who think in metric, a yardstick is 36 inches or 90 centimeters. Using lenses of any kind with LEDs is neither better or worse, but it does give some flexibility between lighting up a large area with moderate light or a smaller area with higher intensity. In our case, the white XPG-packin Aquaray gives a rough PAR value of about 12-15 umol over a very wide area, but with Lisa lenses it was deliverng a peak of 50 umol of PAR that tapered down to about 30 umol on the perimeter of the usable lighting area.
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